


Voice Becomes Song

by Rednaelo



Series: The Hunter Sings [2]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Rescue Bots
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Developing Friendships, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-04-20 17:52:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4796744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rednaelo/pseuds/Rednaelo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was the precise reason Kade didn’t like to talk to the Sparks.  They were so boring!  Well, Heatwave was, at least, but there was barely a difference in the way the other Sparks processed information.  Nothing remotely interesting about an intelligence construct who didn’t even have wants or initiative.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Voice Becomes Song

**Author's Note:**

> Another installment of my muse-kicking project. Please be aware that this is a _prequel_ even though it's part two of the series. And, yeah, I'm probably gonna leave it out of order because...I can. Ha ha. No naughties in this one but it's fun if you just like plot shenans and AU background info? Decided to stick with the inclusion of Kaijuu but still not using the term 'drift' because that's not precisely what this is. Dunno what I'm gonna do next with this series but I have a lot of ideas to work with. Continue to expect a disjointed timeline because working out of order seems to be doing nice things for me. And, like I said, it's a muse-kicking project which means I'm not expecting any of this to be super polished or even ultimately coherent. I'm just putting it up here for the giggles. 
> 
> Please enjoy Kade being an asshole and Heatwave having to deal with it. You know, just like the actual show canon.
> 
> -Bec

“It’s babysitting.”

Charlie Burns frowned at his oldest son over the dinner table but Graham was the one who ended up scolding him.

“How in the world are you not looking forward to this?”  Graham asked Kade, incredulous.  “This is one of the most amazing things to happen in the history of the universe and you’re viewing it as a _chore?_ ”

“Hey, I’ve met the ‘Sparks,’” Kade said, folding his arms over his chest.  “We all have.  Sure, they became a lot more interesting to look at once they got put in those giant robot suits but they still are what they are: boring.”

“They’re only boring to you because you couldn’t float a meaningful conversation with any of them to save your life,” Dani teased him.  Kade’s chin dropped in preparation to prove her wrong but Dani plowed right on through. “I think it’s the best graduation present anyone has ever gotten.”

“We’ve been given a great opportunity here, Kade,” Charlie said as Kade gave the stink-eye to his forkful of mashed potatoes.  “I would hate for you to feel like it’s more of a burden than it is a dream-come-true.”

“Fighting humongous sea monsters in giant robots is living the dream, Dad,” Kade said.  Charlie refrained from reminding him not to talk with his mouth full.  Sometimes it was unbelievable that Kade even got out of high school.  But there he was: the Facility’s top-scoring Hunter Pilot. “Fighting them with a stick-in-the-mud, soulless A.I. – not so dreamy.”

“But they’re not going to be that way forever!” Dani argued.

“Well, right now they are.  And they’re boring.”

“I think they’re cool,” Cody said quietly next to Charlie.  Chief Burns smiled warmly at his youngest and pet his head.  “Can I be friends with the Sparks too, Dad?”

“Of course you can.  You should talk with Heatwave since it looks like he’ll be a little lonely.”

“He’ll be fine, he’s a fuhh—” Kade smeared the curse into silence when Charlie frowned at him. He coughed – tried again.  “He’ll be fine, he’s not a real person.  They don’t feel, they just think.”

Cody pursed his lips in a little frown.

“He’s real.  I think you should try to be his friend.”

“You’ll know better when you’re older, little bro,” Kade rebuffed him.  “You’re just a kid right now; there’s better things to do when you get older than hang around a robot who can’t do anything but stand there and answer when you ask it questions.  Gets old real quick.”

“You should ask good questions, then,” Cody insisted.  “Do you know Heatwave’s favorite color yet?”

Kade blinked.  Dani sniggered into her hand and Graham smiled around his fork.

“Uh….”

“You should ask him!”

“I think that sounds like a great question,” Charlie encouraged his youngest.  “How about you help Kade come up with some good questions to ask his Spark after dinner?”

“Yeah!”

“Now, wait a minute—” Kade started.

“Can we get ice cream too?”

“You’ll have to ask Kade that,” Charlie said, patting Cody on the back.  “Kade, would you mind taking your little brother out for ice cream after dinner so you two can come up with some nice things to ask Heatwave?”

Kade narrowed his eyes.  He glanced between Graham and Dani, neither of whom were looking at him, pretending as if they couldn’t even hear the conversation going on.  Graham was doing something silly with his eyebrows, though.

“I guess that doesn’t sound too awful,” Kade muttered.

“Be home by eight,” Charlie said and took another bite of steak.  The dinner table was quiet again. Dani leaned over and not-so-inconspicuously informed Kade that Blades’ favorite color was orange.  Graham almost snorted a green bean out of his nose when Kade reminded Dani that when they were Cody’s age, she wanted to be a puppy when she grew up.

* * *

 It took an hour and a half to scrub the communication line for any wiretaps then isolate it from any possible external hacks.  But it was an improvement for the four hour process it once took for Doc Greene to close their communication off and make sure it was as secure as possible.  At least nowadays he had the Chief to keep him company.

“Soon?” Charlie Burns asked as he came back with two full mugs of coffee and set the one with the silly Albert Einstein face in front of Greene.

“Almost,” Ezra said as he set the screencapture to record.  “Now it’s just a matter of waiting.”

“And how long will that take?” Charlie asked, eyeing the black screen with its command-prompt cursor blinking on and off.

“Usually not too long.  He’s a very punctual sort.”

Not two minutes later, a soft chime sounded from the secure console.  Greene did one last check to make sure the door was locked to the communications lab and then sat down in front of the computer with Charlie to take the call.

“You’re go for Channel Lambda S.  State your credentials for verification,” the Doctor said as he set his automatic transcriber bot on a nearby keyboard so it could get to typing.  Charlie’s heart knocked around in a sudden tremor as the green wavering line across the screen flared to life with sound from the voice that answered.

“Our home planet nearest the scorpion’s tail recognizes its four children, stars apart,” a soft and stalwart voice recited, less like a password, more like a poem.   “Designation: Sikari.  Heatwave, Chase, Boulder and Blades.  With the Prime’s Blessing, they are begotten.”

“It’s good to hear from you, Optimus Prime,” Greene said with a smile.  “I have Chief Charlie Burns here with me as you requested.”

“Thank you, Doctor Greene,” the voice said.  “I will engage my video feed.  It should patch through shortly.  Chief Burns, thank you very much for you and your family’s participation in this project.  As Doctor Greene has no doubt explained to you, this is a matter of extraordinary significance to me and my race as a whole.”

“I understand,” Charlie said, nodding at the screen, which was nothing but static at the moment.  “I also appreciate your willingness to level with me on a few questions I still have about the process.”

“Absolutely.  After all, this is much more than a simple scientific experiment.”

The video feed calibrated and the screen showed a mechanical face and gently glowing blue optics above a battered battlemask.  Charlie locked eyes with Optimus Prime and whatever trepidation he might’ve had faded away in an instant.

“Doc Greene has told me so much about the hopes and dreams that lie behind the Sikari program.  I can’t say that I can completely empathize with your plight but I do know that without family, I wouldn’t be the man I am today.  And I can recognize that this will be beneficial to so much more than just you or me.”

He couldn’t tell if Optimus was smiling or not but there was something in the bright blue of his gaze that was warm, comforting.

“Thank you, Chief.  I was hoping this day, you might also enlighten me more about your family, who will be shaping and guiding these first Sparks.”

“Happy to do that, Optimus, Sir.”

“I will be recording this conversation for posterity and reference, just as a reminder to you both,” Doc Greene said, comfortable in his chair and smile full of excitement.  “Obviously, these recordings will only be available to those with top-level security access.”

Optimus gave a nod. 

“Of course, Doctor.  Thank you for your diligence.”  There was a shift in his focus and Optimus nodded towards Charlie.  “I do know that you have volunteered to be the initiator for the Spark designated Chase.  Which of your four children will be assigned to the other three Sparks?”

“My three eldest,” Charlie said as he took up his tablet and pulled an image of his family to show the camera.  “Kade, my first son, will be Heatwave’s designee.  My daughter Dani will be partnered with Blades.  And my son Graham is assigned to Boulder.”

Optimus had leaned in to his own vidscreen to get a better look at the image.  With a sidelong glance to Doc Greene and a nod in answer, Ezra forwarded the image straight to Optimus so he could reference it a little better.

“They have all undergone the cyberintegration procedure?” Optimus asked, still focused on the image.

“Graham was the last and his recovery period ended three months ago.”

“No complications?”

“None.  We have all recovered just fine and logged significant progress on our simulators.”

“That is good news,” Optimus said.  “Please be aware, though, that the simulators are prototypes, as this is the first instance of such a project occurring in the known universe.  There is no guarantee that your work with the simulators will be even a near duplicate of your actual experience with the Spark Synchronization.”

“I’ll be sure to inform them all,” Charlie said with a nod.  Optimus looked back down at the picture of the Burns family. 

“Your youngest…,” the Prime said leadingly.

“That’s Cody.  He’s seven, but still very excited that his family gets to have the coolest job in the world.”

“It is my sincere hope that in your endeavors to raise the children of my race that your own are not neglected.  You strike me as a very dutiful and dedicated man, Chief Burns.  Please know that no matter what, my hope is for you to keep your family safe and happy.”

“Then you’ll be glad to know that I am dedicated to doing the same for yours, Optimus,” Charlie said.  “And I have a feeling that this project will help us do both those things at once.”

Optimus Prime’s shoulders eased just a little, as if someone had bowed next to him to help him hold up the burden he’d been carrying for far too long.

“I truly understand why Doc Greene recommended you and your family to help me, Chief,” Optimus said, full of gentle confidence.  “Please…tell me more about your children.  All of them.”

* * *

 Dani was smiling when the hangar vault opened but it melted away when she realized that Kade was not accompanying her father and youngest brother through the entry.

“Are you serious?” she asked as she jogged up to them.  “Where is he?”

“Kade said he’s coming later,” Cody told her with a smile. “Don’t be mad.  He promised me he’d let me say hello to Heatwave.”

“Uh-huh….  Dad?”

The chief gave a helpless shrug.  “He mentioned he had a previous arrangement with Haley today.”

Dani scoffed and crouched down so she could hoist Cody into a piggy-back ride.

“‘Previous’ nothing.  He’s skipping out again.  He knew we had another orientation day today.  I can’t believe him.”

“He’ll come! He’ll be here later!” Cody insisted as he wrapped his arms around his sister’s neck.  “He said so!”

“I just don’t get why he doesn’t like interacting with the Sparks at all,” Dani said as she walked over to the lift at Dock Four and ducked a little so Cody could hit the button for the lift.  “Say hi to Chase for me, Dad,” she called back to him.

“Same for Blades, sweetie.”

“Will do!”

“I wanna tell him!” Cody said as they were steadily raised up.

“You can tell him all you like, Code,” Dani said, bouncing him a little on her back to make him giggle.

Three years ago, when Dani had just finished up her freshman year at high school, she’d sat down with her dad and brothers at the table and learned that their father had been honored with the opportunity to pilot one of the first Artificially Intelligent hunter bots known as Sikari.  There were four being built and Charlie Burns had been selected from a list of potential candidates to begin preliminary tests on man-machine neural compatibility.

Dani was speechless.  Graham was excited.  Cody was four.  Kade was the one who immediately said, “I’m gonna do that too.”

Their dad had blinked at him and then Dani clenched her fists and said, “If you can do it then we could too, right Dad?”

And now, as she carried her brother up to Blades’ cockpit, Dani couldn’t help but let her eyes linger across the way to Dock One.  Heatwave stood there, populated by a small mechanical crew who were attaching his second-layer plating.  Bright red, freshly painted and sparkling.  Heatwave's optics were pale blue and stared straight ahead to Dock Two where Dani’s father was approaching his own companion.  Graham had been studying for his exams in Boulder’s cockpit for the past two hours. 

Dani glanced back as a shower of sparks fell from where the mechanic was detail-welding around Heatwave’s shoulder.

_“I’m gonna do that too.”_

“Dani, Dani!”  Cody was tugging on her sleeve.  “Let’s go in!”

Dani smiled and ducked into Blades’ cockpit, taking a seat after swinging Cody around to her hip so she could sit him on her lap.

“See?” she said, pointing up at the camera above the HUD screen after the cockpit sealed.  The lens twisted and focused.  “That’s where he can see you.  Wave hi!”

Cody beamed and waved his hand at the screen.

“Hi, Blades!  I’m Cody and I wanna be a pilot like Dad and Kade and Dani and Graham!”

The orange display flashed and chimed and a line of Sikari Code scrolled the screen.  Cody looked at it, puzzling.

“That’s not the alphabet,” he said to Dani. 

“You’re right, it’s not,” she said.  “It’s a very special language that the Sparks use to speak to us.”

“They can’t write with ABC’s?”

“Well, they can if they really wanted to,” Dani said as she reached her hands out over the console and input a few commands.  “But we have them speak in the special language because the only people who know it are important friends.  It’s like a secret code.”

“That’s so cool!” Cody said, looking up at the screen where the cursor was blinking at the end of Blades’ words.  “When I become a pilot I’ll learn it too, right?”

“You’ll have to,” Dani said with a grin.  She pulled down the visor and slipped it over Cody’s head, engaging the translator program.  “There, look at the screen again, can you read it now?”

Cody touched the visor anchors at his temples to hold them steady as he looked up at the words.

“‘Hi, Cody, it’s nice to see you again.’  Again?” Cody turned to look at Dani.

“The Sparks met you before when you were younger,” she told him.  “They weren’t in their robot bodies yet.  They were just on computers.”

Cody frowned a little and turned back to the screen.

“I don’t remember it.  Do you remember it, Blades? Can you tell me what happened?”

Another few lines scrolled across the screen rapidly and Dani waited with a smile as Cody read them aloud.

“‘I remember it. You were brought to the Spark Lab on Monday, March 11th, 2006 at 11:17 pm.  We were told you weren’t supposed to be there but Chief Burns insisted on bringing you.’”

“It was after mom’s funeral, Code,” Dani said, rubbing her brother’s back.  “Dad didn’t like leaving you by yourself.”

“But I would’ve been with you guys,” Cody said.  Dani gave him a little smile.

“Well, Dad didn’t like leaving you.”

More text appeared on the screen.

“‘You were sleeping.’  Oh, that’s why I don’t remember.  So this is my first time meeting you but you met me before!”

_‘That’s right. It’s nice to finally talk to you. We’re glad to have you here.’_

“Blades, can I ask you somethin’?” Cody said, reaching out to gently put his hands on the keyboard.

_‘Yes.’_

“If Dani gets sick or something and can’t pilot you for a day, can I take her place?”

Dani giggled and hugged her baby brother.

_‘You’ll have to ask your dad.’_

“Okay! I’ll do that.  I have some more things I wanna ask you.”  Cody pulled a folded piece of notebook paper out of his pocket and smoothed it out on the console.  “Kade’s gonna ask these questions to Heatwave but I wanna ask them to you first.”

Dani sat in silence for the most part, smiling as two children became friends with each other.

* * *

 Kade only had about a split second of panic after he realized what time it was and then he remembered that he didn’t care.  Haley was in the bathroom showering and had her stereo playing some catchy pop song with dumb lyrics that was sure to get stuck in his head for the rest of forever.  Kade groaned and cracked his back a little before sliding out of her bed to look for his clothes.  Well, his pants, at least.  He’d put on his shirt when he was actually ready to leave.

Should’ve left an hour ago but, again, he didn’t actually care.  Orientation days were dumb and annoying.  Kade picked up his phone from where he had left it on Haley’s vanity.  Two missed calls and a string of pissy text messages from Dani.  Kade ignored them all and turned his phone face down so he could fuss with his hair in the mirror.  His fingers bumped against the smooth metal port grafted into the back of his skull and Kade gave his reflection an exasperated glare. 

Dad was the one who had assured him that interacting with the Sparks wouldn’t be like this forever.  That eventually they’d develop personalities and defining characteristics that would make them more than computers with voices.  But that wasn’t for another week.  What was the point of ‘orientating’ to A.I. constructs if they were going to be entirely different in a few days? Kade would be back when Heatwave became more interesting.

“You’re thinking pretty hard,” Haley said as she walked in with a towel wrapped around her.  “Don’t blow a fuse now, mister cyborg.”

Kade scoffed and ran his fingers through his hair again to try and get it to behave.

“No danger of that happening,” he said.  “Not even anything worth thinking about.”

“Mmhmm.  Weren’t you heading into the lab for training today?” 

Kade watched her towel fall away in the mirror’s reflection, gaze tracing the pale lines of her body before he realized she’d asked him a question.

“Somethin’ like that, yeah,” he said, trying to refocus on grooming himself.

“Well, you better head out then,” Haley said as she dressed herself.  “It’d be a shame if you were late.  You’re gonna be the whole world’s hero; you have a lot riding on you.”

Kade smirked.

“Damn right I’m gonna be a hero.”  He turned and reached out to her, pulling her close to pose dramatically while she giggled at him.  “And you’ll be my fair princess to rescue, right?”

“In your dreams, you goofball,” Haley said, pushing at his chest so she could pull on her shorts properly.  “Oh, your phone’s ringing.”

Kade turned back to the vanity to see his phone skiddering across its surface. 

“Three guesses who,” he muttered under his breath before flipping it face-up to check the caller ID.

_Dani_

Kade rolled his eyes and picked up the call anyway.

“Yeah?” he answered.

“Kade!” came a voice that was definitely not Dani.

“Cody?”

“It’s almost time to go and you still aren’t here yet,” Cody told him, sounding more than a little disappointed.  “You promised me, remember?  You were gonna go through your list with Heatwave today.”

“Yeah, bud, I know, but I ended up being really busy today, it couldn’t be helped,” Kade said as he picked up his shirt from the floor.  “Next time.  I’ll talk with him about it next time.”

“But this is the last time you can ask him before he gets all different! I talked with Blades today and he said that everything’s gonna change when you do the…um…what’s it called again?”

“Invoking,” Kade heard Dani say in the background.

“Yeah, invoking!  What if his answers change, you won’t have any way of knowing.”

“Cody, it’s fine, it’s not that big a deal, it’s not going to matter if Heatwave’s favorite color changes from blue to green, okay?”

Haley looked over her shoulder at him and gave Kade a small, sad smile that he missed entirely as he pulled his shirt on.

“He’s gonna remember,” Cody insisted.  “Heatwave’s gonna remember that you didn’t want to be with him even and it’s going to make him sad.”  Kade held the phone a few inches from his face and rubbed at his forehead in exasperation.  “Blades remembered me!  He remembered the day he first saw me; they remember everything!  And what if Heatwave doesn’t remember anything about you except that you didn’t like him!”

“Alright, Cody, fine, I’m on my way, alright?  I’m leaving now.”  With that he turned and gave Haley a wave.  She smiled and waved back, watching him as he descended the stairs.  Kade swiped up his keys from the table in the hallway before leaving.

“Okay, Kade,” Cody said as Kade clicked the unlock button for his red corvette.  “I’ll see you soon.  Can I talk to Heatwave with you?”

“Next time, kid, it’s late, you got school tomorrow.”

“You have to promise me for real, for real this time.”

“For real, for real,” Kade said with a sigh and a small smile.

“Bye Kade.”

“See ya, buddy.”

Kade hung up before Dani could take back her phone and chew him out.  Instead he dialed up Graham after backing out of Haley’s complex.  The drive to the hangar would take the better part of an hour; Kade flicked his radio on as the dial tone repeated.

“Kade?” Graham asked as he picked up the phone. “Dude, where’ve you been, we’ve been doing neural-flex simulations for like an hour now and you’re missing all of that.”

“Yeah, tell me something I don’t know,” Kade said.

“Alright: since you’re behind on your logged hours, they’re going to revoke your clearance for the invoking until you catch up.”

Kade’s mouth fell open and a hot wash of shame and indignant anger swept through him.

“Are you fuckin’ serious?” he asked.

“Very,” Graham said.  “You’re lucky they’re not just handing the piloting job to someone else entirely.  They probably would if they didn’t invest a ridiculous amount of time and money into each of us already.”  Kade was still fighting through the tangle of fury to find words to say as Graham continued.  “You can catch up in time to do the invoking with us next week but you gotta be dedicated to it, man.”

“Yeah, I got it,” Kade snapped.

“Look, I’m just trying to help you,” Graham said.  “We’re doing this together, as a family, right?  That was the idea.  Don’t flake out on us now just because we’re not at the fun part yet.”  There was a brief pause, a sigh in between words.  “We’re gonna be heroes, remember? So quit being an ass about it and do your job.”

“Harsh, bro,” Kade grumbled, though the words were sharp enough to stick, like walking through a patch of burrs.

“Yeah, well, better coming from me than Dad, okay?”

Kade frowned, suddenly picturing his father’s disappointed expression with uneasy vividness.

“I’ve fucked up pretty bad, huh,” he said quietly into the receiver.  Graham smiled; Kade could hear it through the phone.

“You’ll be forgiven.  Just come back and be a hero.”

“Can do, little bro.”

“Yeah, I know it.  Okay, well, now that I’m done telling you off, was there actually something you wanted?”

“Yeah I wanted to ask you what you like about your Spark.”  More silence.  Graham wasn’t volunteering any information whatsoever.  “Uh…,” Kade continued in an effort to clarify, “because I can’t really find anything to like about mine so I figured I’d ask what’s worth sticking around for.”

“Okay, Kade,” Graham said with a sigh.  Already, Kade could tell his younger brother was settling into lecture-mode which may or may not include terms that Kade was unfamiliar with and would need explanations for.  At least he had long gotten over how his younger brother was smarter than him.  Kade braced himself.  “What you said the other night, about spending time with the Sparks being like babysitting?  Right now, that’s sort of the truth.”

“So you’re admitting I was right,” Kade said smugly.

“About that one particular thing,” Graham conceded.  “Where you messed up was your reaction to that observation.  It wasn’t too long ago that Cody was just a toddler.  He’s still just a kid.  Dealing with and sympathizing with a childlike construct shouldn’t be that much of a stretch for you.

“They’re not even intentionally childlike.  They’re just comparative to children because they’re still learning.  And that’s just something you’re gonna have to accept, Kade.  They’re gonna be learning for quite a long time.  You know, just like real people.”

“Well, I can appreciate the life-lessons here, bro, but you haven’t actually answered my question,” Kade said.

“That’s the thing, though, Kade,” Graham said.  “The fact that I can teach Boulder about life by giving him my own experience is what I enjoy about our relationship.  I like being able to fill in the gaps of his understanding and show him what’s cool about the world he was born into and is going to protect.  You’ve gotta find the reason that works for you.”

A frown turned down the corners of Kade’s mouth.  Well, that answer wasn’t something he could really pull a lot of inspiration from.  Because to him, it seemed like Graham found the very thing that Kade couldn’t stand enjoyable.  Kade didn’t particularly care for being all Disney-happy-fluffy-“I can show you the world” to an artificial intelligence.  Heatwave had the internet at his immediate disposal any time he wanted.  He could do all the learning he wanted that way.  It didn’t seem all that fun.

“I think you’re on the right track, though,” Graham said when Kade didn’t respond immediately.  “It’s not a bad idea to ask about what’s in it for all of us.  You should ask Dad and Dani too.  Heck, ask Cody, even.  He’s not a pilot but you know they’ll be making him one if he still wants to by the time he’s old enough.”

“Oh, I know why Cody likes the Sparks,” Kade said, unaware of how he was smiling while he said it.  “He’s excited to be friends with them.”

“You get to be friends with them too, Kade,” Graham reminded him.  “Maybe you should start by giving Heatwave a reason to be excited about being friends with you, you know?”

Kade blinked a little as he drove along the mountain roads in the dusk.

“That may be the most genius thing you’ve ever said, Graham,” he remarked, a little dazed and giddy by the sudden flare in his conviction.

“Yeah, well, if there’s anything that will get you motivated, it’s a chance to show off,” Graham said.

“Damn right.  Alright, well, that’s a good place to start at least.  Thanks, bro, I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Oh, hey, Kade, before you go….”

“Yeah, whassup?”

“I think, for your sake, it might be a good idea if you just camp out in the Hangar bunkers for the week, yeah?”

Kade scowled at the view through his windshield.

“You can’t be serious.”

“Super serious.  If you spend as much time here as you can, that’ll definitely prove your dedication, won’t it?”

“There’s no kitchen there, dude, how am I gonna feed myself?”

“Pff. Like you even need a kitchen to eat what you want.  Just order pizza and takeout, you’ll be fine.”

“Can’t order dad’s barbeque ribs for takeout,” Kade said.

“Well, no, you can’t, but it’s not like he has time to make them nowadays.  But I bet if you do a good job making up for the time you’ve lost, you could persuade him to make them for you after the invoking.”

“That’d be pretty rad, huh….”

“God knows I’m all for it.  So, you gonna camp out here?”

Kade puffed up his cheeks and let all the air hiss out through pursed lips as he thought about the pros and cons of either choice. 

“I don’t have any of my shit with me,” he finally said.

“I’ll pack a bag for you and bring it up tonight if you want,” Graham offered.

“You’d just go ahead and do that out of the goodness of your little brainiac heart, huh?” Kade asked.

“I would,” Graham said, sincere.  “But you have to stay there the whole week and make a dedicated effort for this like you’re supposed to have been doing all along.”

“I mean, I’ll do it,” Kade said, “but I’ll do it even better if you bring me a bag of my favorites from Mickey-D’s.”

“Wow.”

“I’m starving, okay?”

“I’m not paying for that.”

“Yeah, no duh, just grab it for me on the way back to the hangar, deal?”

“Only if you buy me a Flurry.”

“Ugh, fine.  Get me one too.”

“Oreo?”

“M&M’s, you fucking dork.”

Graham laughed into the phone and Kade found himself sighing away all of the tension he didn’t even know he was carrying.  Instead of hanging up, he stayed on the phone with Graham all the way to the hangar, talking about they had video games to catch up on once invoking was over.

* * *

 He cleared it with Doc Greene and Professor Baranova beforehand so it wasn’t like there was anything wrong with being in the hangar when it wasn’t occupied by anyone.  Well, it had four giant robots in it, but that was it.  The mechanics were done with their work and had gone home for the day.  The few straggling bioengineers had left after Kade had checked in with them and made sure his neural port was still calibrated properly for him to work.  And after Kade had gone to his dad to apologize for being an irresponsible jackass, he got an assuring pat on the shoulder and a small smile.  Then the rest of the Burns family left the facility to get a good night’s rest.  Graham had come back with a bag full of clothes and another bag full of fast food for Kade and then told him good luck and good night.

So it was just Kade.  Kade and four giant robots and the sound of the fluorescent lights buzzing that was usually hushed under all the bustle of the hangar.  Kade stood at the entrance in his hoodie and jeans with half a McFlurry still in his hand. 

It was too fucking quiet.  Kade shoved his free hand in his hoodie pocket and skulked down to Dock One, berating himself for not bringing his iPod with him.  Those bots were huge.  Towering and bulky with glowing eyes that just stared straight ahead.  Giant windup toys that were locked where they stood.  Kade gave an exaggerated sigh, listening to it rattle and echo through the room.

“Need to get a speaker system plugged into this place,” Kade muttered to himself ask he stepped onto the lift at Dock One and slammed the ‘Up’ button with the side of his fist.  “Hack the P.A. to play some jams, even.  Sheesh….”

Heatwave’s face stared straight ahead to Dock Two where Chase was staring right back but God knew if the bots were actually looking at each other.  They didn’t move.  Ever.  Just stood there and babbled through text on computers.  Kade could easily just have stayed by the command console and talked to Heatwave from there.  But Dani was always rattling off about how being in the cockpit while speaking to the Sparks was important.  It was helping them “learn body language” or something.  And Kade wasn’t going to cut corners anymore.  Didn’t need anyone else getting on his case.  Message received: time to get to work. 

Kade stepped off the lift and grabbed the frame of Heatwave’s cockpit to swing himself inside.

“Hey, Heatwave,” he said as he took a seat and then filled his mouth with another spoonful of M&M-dabbled ice cream.  “Been a while.”

_‘It’s been seventeen days.’_

Kade grimaced at the blunt text that appeared on the HUD screen and set the cockpit to seal itself shut.

“Uh-huh.  But I’m here now so that’s fine, right?”  Heatwave didn’t answer.  Kade blinked at the unchanged screen.  Weird.  Usually the Sparks were all about answering questions, no matter how insignificant or rhetorical they might’ve been.  Kade took another bite, swallowing it down hard. “So…uh…what have you been doing this whole time?”

_‘Waiting.’_

Okay, well, now Kade was scowling.

“Little sassy today, aren’t we,” he said dryly.

_‘You asked me what I have been doing.  I answered truthfully.’_

“You haven’t done anything except waiting?  Like, you haven’t been net-surfing or researching or anything?”

_‘I have had no need to do internet searches.  I have occupied my time observing the employees of Griffin Rock Sikari Facility in their daily tasks.’_

“And that’s been enough to keep you entertained this whole time?” Kade asked.  Damn, his flurry was almost gone.

_‘I do not need entertainment’_

Kade groaned quietly, bringing a hand to his face to rub against his brow.  This was the _precise_ reason he didn’t like to talk to the Sparks.  They were so boring!  Well, Heatwave was, at least, but there was barely a difference in the way the other Sparks processed information.  Nothing remotely interesting about an intelligence construct who didn’t even have wants or initiative. 

Kade Burns pictured his baby brother’s eagerly grinning face as he ate bubblegum ice cream and begged Kade to ask Heatwave what his favorite dinosaur was. 

Right, he had a list….

“Well, if you don’t mind it, I got a few things I’d like to talk with you about,” Kade said, stirring the color-smeared ice cream around in his cup.

_‘I have no reason to mind.’_

“Well good, that’ll make things easy.”  Kade pulled his phone out and flicked through the apps until he found the one containing the list he put together with Cody.

_‘I want to ask you something first.’_

Kade halted in the middle of his scrolling as he deciphered the code on screen.  Well that….  That certainly was a first.  He leaned back in the pilot seat and tried to tell himself that all his worst sci-fi nightmares about rogue A.I.’s weren’t about to come true.

“Yeah?  What’s up?” Kade said, cautious.

_‘Why are you my pilot?’_

…huh.

“When my dad told us that he was going to be a Sikari Pilot, I told him that I wanted to do the same thing.  And after I passed the certification and training, they assigned you to me,” Kade explained simply.  It was a bit of a left-field question.  But, luckily for Kade, it wasn’t something deep and philosophical like, ‘Am I a real person?’

Because Kade knew the answer he would give to that one.  And it probably wouldn’t make anybody happy in the end.

_‘So, because of your initial interest and capability, you have maintained your status as my pilot despite your disregard for a majority of the mandatory orientation sessions.’_

Kade’s eyes steadily narrowed at the screen, his hand tightening a little around his cup.

“What are you saying?” he asked.

_‘I am confused as to why you are still my pilot when you clearly have demonstrated that you are not committed to the responsibility.  I do not understand why the bioengineers have not replaced you with someone else.’_

“You wanna know why, you bucket of scrap?” Kade snapped at him.  He reached out and forcibly engaged the posterior camera of the cockpit’s internal feed, guiding it to focus on the glinting port on back of Kade’s head.  “You see that?  I volunteered to get that hunk of metal grafted into my own nervous system.  The surgery took seven hours and the recovery took a fucking year.  Your invoking is a week from today and they’re not putting it off for another year and spending another quarter of a billion dollars to find someone else to do what I’ve been training to do for three years.  That solve the fucking mystery for you?”

 _‘It would be a waste of the facility’s resources to replace you,’_ Heatwave responded.

“And there is that Artificial Intelligence in action.  Good job putting that together,” Kade sneered at the screen with a slow clap.  “Any other questions?”

_‘If I requested a replacement pilot would Doctor Greene take it into advisement despite the potential drain on resources?’_

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Kade said as his heart kicked furiously in his chest.  His skull felt like someone had dropkicked it into a furnace.

_‘All datapoints indicate that you are unreliable as a pilot.  It would be unsafe and irresponsible for you to follow-through with the invoking and allow you to stay as my pilot permanently.  I am all the more assured of it after today.  Your behavioral responses to my observations are increasingly aggressive.”_

“Gee, I wonder why that is,” Kade growled, blunt fingernails digging hard into his palms.

_‘You are unsuitable to be pilot to me or any Spark.  I’ll be taking the recordings of this interaction to Doctor Greene to further my case.’_

Kade’s stomach bottomed out, like he’d just chugged a cup of ice slush.  The HUD was beginning to dim.  Heatwave apparently decided they were done talking.  But all Kade was seeing was a dream he’d had been intent on making happen for three years suddenly falling from his hands because a stupid A.I. didn’t understand the idea that to err is human.

In the back of his mind, Kade hammered the assurance that he really couldn’t be replaced this late in the game.  And even if Heatwave did argue his case all nice and neat, they couldn’t just find someone who was even remotely qualified to do what Kade could.

The HUD grew darker.  Kade’s cellphone had a list of stupid questions on it that he was never going to be able to ask.  His family would look at him with disappointment in their eyes for the rest of his life.

Kade glanced upwards frantically and snatched the neural tap that was hanging just above his seat.

There was one way to be sure they couldn’t replace him.

The HUD screen flashed to life.

_‘What are you doing?!’_

Kade clenched his teeth and pierced the tap straight into his port. 

* * *

 Anna Baranova was always the first one to arrive at the lab.  The only time she wasn’t by herself when she got to work was when Ezra had been working overnight and was still around, either still working or passed out face-first on a keyboard.  Today, though, she apparently would be in the company of Kade Burns.  Though, no doubt the boy was in the bunker sleeping instead of out and about.  Not even the most dedicated of the bioengineers wanted to be working at five in the morning.

Anna sipped her tea and touched her keycard to the reader to head to the labs.  First things first would be to review the log-data from Kade’s interaction with Heatwave from the previous night.  Hopefully the boy would get himself back on track in time for the invoking.  There was so much riding on the members of the Burns family.  And Anna hadn’t had much time to interact with Kade personally, but she had seen his assessment data for herself.  He was very capable.  He was still just a nineteen-year-old boy, though.  She smiled as she thought about the Burns siblings and how they still had a lot of growing up to do.

Lab door unlocked, Anna slipped inside and froze as soon as she turned the lights on.  There was a continuous warning siren blaring from every console.  Each screen was red with a caution triangle splashed on it, text scrolling by in capital letters.

Anna rushed over to the nearest one and hunched over it, frantic.

_PILOT HAS LOST CONSCIOUSNESS: SYNCHRONIZATION CRASHED._

“Oh, no,” Anna gasped, everything inside her turning to ice.  She fled from the lab, coat whipping behind her as she threw off her high-heels and then tore down the hallway as fast as she could.  Kind hands wrung anxiously together as she waited for the hangar hatch to unseal and let her in.  The hangar itself was still lit.  All bots in their places, motionless as Anna pelted down to Dock One.

“Kade!” she called as she hit the button for the lift to descend.  There was no answer.  Heatwave’s optics were dark.  “Kade Burns!”

That lift couldn’t possibly go any slower.  Anna turned to the command console where the same red screen was flashing at her.  She disengaged the cockpit seal and then climbed onto the lift, send it back up. 

Kade was slumped over the console, tap plugged straight into his neural port and casting off crackling ribbons of discharged electricity.  Blood had soaked his hair and neck and had dried tacky on his skin.  The windshield HUD was red as all the other screens were.

“Kade!”

The boy didn’t even stir.  Anna climbed into the cockpit and sat Kade up in the seat.  His eyes were closed.  There was no sign of blood or vomit on his lips or anywhere on the floor.  His pulse was steady.  Breathing even.  But that said nothing about his brainwave activity.  Anna reached over him to Heatwave’s console and input the command to disengage the neural tap.  With a soft whirring sound, the tap withdrew and Anna watched it ascend back to its normal place above the pilot’s seat.  With one hand on Kade’s shoulder she reached for the phone in her pocket.

There were calls to make.  First one being the ambulance. 

* * *

 Dani hurried alongside her father and brother, carting Cody on her back as they sped through the hospital.  A few twists down the corridors of the ICU and they found Doc Greene standing at the nearby reception desk, waiting for them.

“What happened?” Dani’s father demanded, immediately.  She hadn’t seen him this panicked and afraid in her life.  And she was sure that he, like Dani and Graham, was having horrid flashbacks to the hospital visit that ended in their family going home with one less member.  Dani’s stomach felt tight, her throat full of acid.  What if Kade didn’t leave the hospital this time?

“Kade forcibly entered synchronization with Heatwave,” Doc Greene informed them soberly.  Dani gasped, much like Graham did next to her.  In front of her, he saw her father’s shoulders rise and tighten with tension.  “He is alive and in stable condition, which is a miracle because we have no idea how long he was unconscious.”  Doc took another breath and folded his arms over his chest in a way that Dani had long since come to recognize as his default pose when he was distressed by some sort of problem.  “At this point in time, the doctors don’t know when he will regain consciousness.  He bled from his port rather profusely but there are no signs of internal hemorrhaging. It’s just a waiting game at this point.  They put him on life support just in case.”

“Thank you, Doc,” Dani’s dad said with a bit of a sigh.  “Is there anything else you can tell us?”

“Well, I don’t know how kind it would be to divulge more details—”

“I need to know,” Charlie Burns insisted.

Doc Greene nodded.  Cody wrapped his arms a little tighter around Dani’s neck.  Graham was holding onto her hand.

“Upon reviewing video feeds and initial readouts, the rather aggressive way that Kade entered the synchronization was enough to do massive damage to his brain and nervous system.  He could’ve died instantly.  At best, he might’ve gone into a vegetative state.”

Dani’s eyes were tight.  Her throat felt stuffed full of rocks.  Graham’s hand was shaking around hers.

“He was saved from that all of that.  By Heatwave.”  Doc Greene gave them a pithy smile.  “The synchronization was enough to make an imprint of Kade’s healthy state and when things started deteriorating, Heatwave’s programming automatically rushed in to make adjustments.  It’s miraculous, unprecedented and, for all intents and purposes, impossible.  But it happened.  Heatwave saved Kade’s life.”

“Is Heatwave okay?” Cody asked timidly, his face tucked against Dani’s neck.

“He’s been in stasis, running through a full reboot and defragmentation cycle,” Doc Greene said.  Then remembered who he was talking to. “We won’t know his condition for another few hours.  But I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as we know.”

“Okay….”

“Anna is in the room with him right now,” Ezra told them.  “She was the one who found him.  I’m sure she’ll be relieved that you’re finally here.”

“We’re gonna head in, then.  Thanks again, Doc.”

“Of course, Chief.  I have to go home to check on Frankie.  If you like, I’ll wait around so Cody can see Kade then I’ll take him with me so he can get some more rest.”

“That sounds like a good idea, thank you,” Charlie said, reaching out to grip Ezra’s shoulder in gratitude. 

“I’ll wait out here for you,” Doc Greene said.

Dani walked with her family into the ICU.  Her brothers hadn’t let go of her at all.  Dani was still trying to kick away the fear that she was going to have to bear the responsibility of being the oldest Burns kid now.  Hospitals were freezing and smelled like old people and weird cafeteria food.

They ducked into Kade’s room.  Professor Baranova was sitting at Kade’s bedside, typing away at her tablet.  She stood when they entered, though.

Kade was sleeping.  All hooked up to electrocardiographs and oxygen tubes.  At least he didn’t need a respirator.  He was so pale, though.  His eyelids looked all purple-bruised and there was brownish blood staining his nape and where it curved into his shoulder. 

“Thanks for being here, Anna,” Dani heard her dad say to the Professor.  She and Graham and Cody didn’t bother greeting Anna.  They went straight to Kade.  Cody hopped off Dani’s back and crawled up onto the bed to tuck himself against Kade’s side and clutch at the blanket.  Dani almost wished that she was small enough to do the same.  She and Kade and Graham would nap in a pile when they were kids….

She would only ever have one big brother.

Dani looked up at Professor Baranova.

“We know what he did,” she said, her voice cracking into volume after the first few words of whispers.  “But why?  Why did he synchronize with Heatwave out of the blue like that?  That’s not like him.”

Professor Baranova pressed her lips together and sighed a bit, considering Dani. 

“From the recordings we pulled, it seems like Kade got into a bit of an argument with Heatwave about his competency as a pilot.  Heatwave apparently had decided that Kade’s neglect was enough to constitute requesting a replacement.  I can only assume that Kade forcibly engaged the synchronization in order to ensure that no matter what, he wouldn’t be replaced.”

Dani gaped at her, her brow scrunching up in bafflement.

“But…but there wasn’t even a chance that he’d be replaced,” Graham said, ever rational.

“Kade knew that,” Anna said with a humorless smile.  “He even argued that point.  But what Heatwave said must’ve plucked a chord of fear in him.  And he reacted in the way he thought would be best for his own interests.”

“In that case,” Charlie said, “How are we to proceed after he wakes up?”

Anna took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes a little.

“He’ll have to be reprimanded in some way, shape or form,” she said with another sigh.  “Provided that the synchronization was successful enough to create a viable imprint for Heatwave, then there really will be no other option but to let Kade be his pilot.  If the reboot shows that the invoking was unsuccessful or Heatwave is either entirely corrupted, then Kade’s punishment could range from heavy pilot’s probation to federal incarceration.”

“Are you serious?” Graham said.  Dani was sure she could feel the chill of that realization running through them both in tandem.

“He deliberately and recklessly tampered with highly sensitive, grant-sponsored neotechnology,” Anna said, obviously not happy with the reality of the situation.  “Generating a new A.I. Spark to fill the space left by a corrupted Spark will take considerable time and money.”

“So, best case scenario,” Graham said, trying to parse what was in store for them, “The synchronization took and Kade can keep being Heatwave’s pilot.  Worst case, Heatwave is unsalvageable and Kade goes to jail.”

“Those would be the extremes of the situation, yes,” Anna said, putting her glasses back on. 

“And that’s _if_ Kade ever actually wakes up,” Graham added, despairing.

“His chances are very good, actually,” Anna Baranova said, moving towards the door.  “The only reason he’s in the ICU is because when it comes to circumstances like this, it’s better to be cautious.  Give him a few hours, he’ll be back with us.”  She gave the Burns family an encouraging smile.  “No matter what happens, you can rest assured that Ezra and I and everyone else in the facility will be on the side of Kade Burns.  We’ll be eagerly waiting for your return.”

And then she was gone.

Dani sat down at the foot of Kade’s bed.  She still had Graham’s hand in hers.  Maybe their palms were all sweaty but she didn’t feel like letting go. 

* * *

 Waking from the black was slow.  It took decades to open his eyes and the sounds of the world were too loud.  Constant noise…. Nothing would shut up.  And he hurt, Kade hurt so much.  All over, he ached.  The back of his head felt burning hot and heavy with pain, like if he tried to lift it, he knew he’d just slam back down into a concussion.  There was a pinch at the inside of his elbow and when he tried to rub it, someone grabbed his hand and pulled it away.

“Itches…,” Kade complained and tried to scratch at it again.  They wouldn’t let his hand go, though.

At the periphery of his awareness he could hear voices talking to him.  Urgent, trying to get his attention, calling his name.  But he really didn’t want to wake up.  So sore….

“Shuddup, ‘m sleepy,” he mumbled.

“Kade, c’mon, wake up!”

“No, fffuck you.”

“Well, attitude or not, the fact that he’s answering is good enough for me.”

Kade yawned.  That also hurt.

“Ow….”

“Wake up, you big baby.  We can get you some pain meds but you gotta eat something first.”

Kade let his eyes peel open and squinted blearily into the room.  Dani was the one holding his hand, smiling down at him.

“Your face looks awful,” Kade muttered to her as his sight adjusted.

“Speak for yourself,” Dani laughed. 

“What’re you talkin’ about, I’m beautiful always,” Kade said.  He nuzzled his pillow a little bit and then turned his head to see Graham and his Dad standing at the other side of this bed.  “Where’s the Codester?”

“With Doc Greene and Frankie.  They’re probably out at lunch now,” Charlie said, approaching his son to gently stroke his hair.  “You did a number on yourself, Kade.”

“Looks like it,” Kade sighed as he gave Dani’s hand a squeeze and then pulled it away.  The pinch on his arm turned out to be an IV needle taped to his skin.  “How much trouble am I in?”

“Forever,” Dani said with a snort.

“Not as much as you could’ve been,” Graham said with a weak smirk.  “Heatwave’s still fully functional and your synchronization, botched as it was, managed to take.  Congrats: you don’t have to be a convicted criminal.”

“Eesh,” Kade said.  Maybe if he had any energy he would’ve been more distressed by that but, as it was, he did not. Whatever headache he had was getting worse as his awareness steadily came back.  “Could really use that pain medicine, if you guys could buzz the nurse or something.”

“I’ll go get her,” Graham said, moving towards the door.  “They need to know you’re up, anyway.”

He left and Kade shifted to try and sit up but was pushed back down by Dani, who hit the button to tilt the head of the bed itself. 

“They don’t want you to move around too much if you can help it,” Charlie told him.  “Your spinal cord might’ve sustained damage.  They’re waiting on the x-rays to come back.”

“Gotcha, Chief,” Kade said as he adjusted his shoulders a little.  He closed his eyes and tried to think back to when the synchronization took.  Just thinking about it made his sinuses feel like they were going to combust in his face.  And his head…his body….  There was suddenly so much inside of him and he wasn’t even in himself.  And there were words just _screaming_ through his head….  “Ugh….”

“Just take it easy there hotshot,” Dani said with a smile on her lips.  “Whacha wanna eat?”

“Nothing, rrgh, I don’t think I could keep anything down.”

“Not even pudding?”

Kade opened his eyes and peered up at his sister.

“Only if it was chocolate.  The Handi-Snacks brand.”

“The kind mom used to put in our lunches for summer camp?” Dani grinned.

“You know it.”  Kade smiled back at his little sister.

“Lemme go on a grocery run and see if I can bring you back some contraband.  That okay Dad?  I’m taking the van.”

“Go right ahead, Dani.  We won’t be going anywhere for a while,” Charlie said as Dani skipped towards the door. 

There was a brief moment when it was just father and son.  Charlie took the opportunity to brush Kade’s hair back from the sweat of his brow and cup his cheek.  Kade gave his father a sheepish grin.

“Scared you, didn’t I?” he asked.

“Certainly did,” Charlie said, ruffling Kade’s hair.  “I’ll ask that you try to refrain from doing that in the future.”

“Can do,” Kade said.  He closed his eyes for a moment and rested.  And then a thought occurred to him.  “You know where they put my phone?” he asked, one eye squinting open.

“Yeah, Dani took it and was texting Haley about what happened,” Charlie said with a grin. “Although I think towards the end there, they were planning a girls’ day out.  Or something like that, Dani usually only gets that squealy when she gets to go on shopping trips.”

Kade scrunched his face in disgust and shook his head.

“Yeah, well, she better get back soon.  I have a new level to beat.  And pudding to eat.”

Charlie smiled quietly to himself as Kade turned over on his side to doze.  The smile faded away as he noticed the blood dried on the back of his son’s neck.  And when Kade groaned and pulled the blankets over his head, Charlie willed his children to hurry back.

Chief Burns would probably never be comfortable in hospitals.  Reality was, though, that he and his children had elected one of the most dangerous careers to ever take on.  Thinking of the blood on his firstborn’s neck, Charlie reasoned that maybe it was better to prepare for the worst than hope for the best. 

When Dani came back, she had brought enough pudding for all of them.  So they ate it together and saved two cups for Cody.  Kade managed to charm the nurse into giving him a warm wet rag (and her phone number) and wiped off all the blood before he fell asleep again.  Dani and Graham went to go pick up Cody.  Charlie took a nap in the chair next to Kade’s bed. 

* * *

 Professor Baranova sat down on the stool in front of the Dock One command console.  Heatwave’s optics were now a soft amber color, different from the other bots that had yet to be invoked.  He was now very actively looking around with those optics, turning his head slightly to observe the various workers in the hangar.  Some of them were even jumpy about it, startling when they noticed they were being tracked by a giant robot.  Anna found it rather charming, honestly. 

And now, Heatwave’s optics were trained on her as she typed at the console and keyed her headset to transmit audio data to his receptors.

“Good morning, Heatwave,” she said as she set up the transcription program and set it on its way.

 _‘Hello Anna,’_ the screen read in its encrypted code.  Anna couldn’t help but smile down at it. 

“Different this morning, isn’t it?” she said, glancing back up to look at Heatwave’s optics.  They were keeping track of her.

_‘You could say that again.’_

“Brand new personality,” Anna remarked as she pulled out her tablet and opened to her notes.  “Would you mind doing some debriefing with me?”

_‘That’s fine. I think it might help.  To talk about it, I mean.  I still feel…weird.’_

Anna engaged the visor on her headset so she could look up at Heatwave and see his text at the same time.

“Can you start by putting the synchronization and invoking experience into your own words?”

There was a bit of a pause.  Anna watched the optics above her close for a moment. 

 _‘I was afraid,’_ Heatwave said.  _‘And it was my own fear.  I didn’t know…or couldn’t actually tell it was fear until the connection was made.  And then Kade defined it.  It was like he brought something from 2D space into three dimension.’_

“Your fear was from Kade Burns’ impulsive decision to synchronize with you?” Anna guessed.

_‘It was because he didn’t listen to what I had decided.  And I wasn’t prepared.’_

“Mmh….”  Anna made a few notes and then crossed one leg over the other.  “Please, continue.”

_‘As soon as the link took, Kade pushed all the way in.  So hard that he pushed me right out of my chassis and into his body.  Which was disorienting and uncomfortable.’_

“What about it was disorienting and uncomfortable?”  Heatwave’s optics narrowed and Anna had to put her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing.  “Of course, I could hypothesize on that myself,” she explained, “but I want to hear straight from your experience.”

_‘Well, alright.  That makes sense.  It was disorienting because human biology isn’t native to me.  I didn’t know how to operate it.  Which was fine because it was operating on its own just fine without me needing to direct neural impulses or anything.  It was uncomfortable because even though I was present in his body and knew it wasn’t my own, it still felt like my own.  There was a sense of rightness, being there.  Everything felt so simple.  But when I thought about it again, everything was way too complicated.’_

Anna nodded slowly as she scribbled more notes.  Heatwave continued without being prompted.

_‘By the time I returned to my own…my original body, I was different.  I had the same depth that Kade had given to my fear.  He gave it to me entirely.  And I could understand breathing and feel exhaustion and know what it meant to acknowledge fear and then conquer it.  It was so much at once.  We crashed right after that.’_

“I see.”  Anna crossed her T’s and then looked up at Heatwave again.  “I don’t know if you’ve taken time to review the video feeds from that time, but all of that happened in the span of a minute.”

_‘I noticed.  Kade bled out of his port for the ten or so minutes following.’_

Anna grinned a little.  A.I. intelligences choosing the colloquialisms of rough time estimates when they clearly knew and could easily report the exact amount of time.  Details like that were fascinating in and of themselves.

_‘Is he okay?’_

“Kade?” Anna asked, blinking a little.

_‘Yeah.’_

“He’s regained consciousness and seems to be functioning normally, according to what Ezra told me.  He should be back in the hangar by tomorrow.”

_‘Mmmmh.’_

Anna pondered a moment, tucking her stylus absently behind her ear.  “How are you feeling about Kade Burns?”

 _‘Annoyed,’_ Heatwave reported. _‘He’s not what I want in a pilot.  And I knew that even before I had wants.’_

“Do you still wish to have him replaced?” Anna asked.

_‘That doesn’t matter now, does it?  I can’t have anyone else.’_

“But if you had the option of having a different pilot, you’d want one, yes?”

_‘Yeah.  I would.’_

“How do you feel about his decision to forcibly synchronize with you?”

To her surprise, Heatwave didn’t answer immediately.  And when he did answer, there wasn’t nearly as much vitriol as she’d predicted.

_‘I think it was a stupid decision.  And I resent him for taking that matter into his own hands and doing what he wanted without considering me or anyone else.  Same time, though…I’m...enjoying what it’s like to be and learn and experience in three-dimension.  I wouldn’t ever want to go back.  I’m happy?  I think.’_

Anna smiled up at Heatwave and put her hand on the command console since she couldn’t reach out to pat Heatwave’s hand herself. 

“I’m glad that you can feel the world in a way that’s new and engaging, Heatwave.  I hope that it continues to enrich your understanding and bring you joy.”

_‘Thanks, Anna.  You know what I hope?’_

“What do you hope, Heatwave?”

_‘That maybe now that I have a personality imprint Kade will actually listen to me for once.’_

Her smile drooped a little, but Anna gave a nod.

“For all our sakes, especially yours, I do too.” 

* * *

 “Yeah, that’s creepy,” Kade said as he looked up at Heatwave who was looking right back at him.  “Can he hear me?”

“Kade, c’mon,” Graham said as he stood next to his brother, “He couldn’t hear you before when you were down here, why would he be able to now?”

“He’s lookin’ at me like he knows,” Kade muttered suspiciously, eyes narrowing.  Heatwave’s narrowed right back.

“Knows what, that you’re a jerk?  Too late for that, bro.”

Kade slugged Graham in the arm.

“Ow….”

“Alright, well, let’s get this over with.” 

Kade left his brother on the hangar floor as he took the lift up to Heatwave’s cockpit.  He was back on his feet just fine within a day, but his eyes were still bruise-purple on the undersides, yellow where the sockets curved.  Kade stood on that platform like he was about to accomplish something monumental, grinning like he knew the secrets of the universe even though not even an hour ago he was whining at Dani help him tame a cowlick at the back of his head.  Graham watched his big brother swing into the cockpit like he’d been doing it all his life. 

Already he was betting himself that Kade wouldn’t enter Heatwave’s cockpit any other way.

Within the cockpit itself, Kade was entering the commands to seal it shut, biting back complaints about the headache that had been worsening since he woke up.

“Ready for round two?” Kade asked as he pulled on his visor and flicked a smirk at the camera above the HUD.

_‘Don’t touch.  I’m plugging in this time.’_

Kade raised an eyebrow but relaxed against the pilot’s seat nonetheless. 

“Go easy on me, Big Guy, already got a killer migraine.”

_‘Say please and I’ll think about it.’_

Kade snorted and shook his head.

“Yeah, you wish.  Do it because if you don’t, you’ll regret it as soon as we synch.”

Kade wasn’t quite sure that Heatwave even had the capability of growling with his robotic body.  But the cockpit shuddered around him in a way that could only be construed as threatening.  Kade gave the camera an unamused glare and then the tap was pressing slowly into his port.  His lips parted in a bit of a gasp, eyes rolling back into his skull as the synchronization engaged.

Everything was a rush.  Like tides rising all at once and then retreating again to form a tsunami on the horizon.  And when everything fit back into place, it was brand new and different.  Clearer, somehow….  Painless….

Painless?

Kade blinked.  His headache was gone.

“Huh.”

_Wow that’s…unexpectedly better._

“You too?” Kade asked as he pulled up the bioreadings from the tap’s feed onto the HUD.  Everything was looking stable.  Their twined brainwaves were flowing smooth and steady.  Kade felt better just looking at them.

_Didn’t know that anything was even wrong.  Just figured the duress was just how things were supposed to feel._

“Guess we better chill like this for a while.”  Kade’s fingers skimmed over the console keys and sent a communication request out to Professor Baranova.  “’Sup Prof.”

“Hello Kade Burns,” she said with a patiently amused smile.  “Nice to see you back at the Hangar and fully functional.  Something new to report?”

“Yeah, anything you got in your research that says there’d be pain and…uh…what was that word you used, Heatwave?”

“Pain and ‘duress’,” Kade said with unnecessary stress on the syllables.  “Cuz soon as we synched up we had some changes.  Felt better after the link took.”

“Hmm.  Well, if I had to venture a guess, your invoking synchronization wasn’t completed properly and left some residual damage to your systems, both of you,” Anna said, glancing aside pensively.

“So…that gonna be permanent?  The pain and stuff?” Kade asked.  In the back of his mind, Heatwave was sighing and bracing himself for the inevitability that, yeah, they were gonna feel the consequences of a botched invoking for the rest of their lives.

“Hard to say.  This is the first time invoking has ever happened.  We only have simulators to tell us what could happen.  However….  Hmm….”

“Yes?” Kade asked, leadingly.  He found his patience had extended a little now that he didn’t feel like there was a watermelon in his head.  He felt relaxed, even.   Although, feeling Heatwave hover around the sensations, gently clinging to them and testing them out, was a weirdness all of its own. 

“There’s some consulting that needs to be done on this whole situation, honestly.  I have a meeting to get to now, Kade, but I’ll touch base with you after I have more information for you.  Until then, please remain synchronized with Heatwave and this time, go through the invoking procedure properly.  It’s possible completing the steps will help your link stabilize and solve your problem.”

“Can do, Prof.  Catch you later.”

“Over and out.”

Kade leaned back and brought his feet up into the chair.

“Sounds like a hassle and a half but we’re balls-deep in this bitch now, aren’t we, Heatwave?”

_I actually like doing my job, Kade.  Something I’m pretty sure I didn’t get from you._

“Hey, no one’s got a better job in here than me.”

_Including the three other people who have the same exact job._

“You know it.”

Kade flicked through programs and notes until he found the procedure for invoking and the follow-up exercises that they were supposed to complete together.

“Time estimates got us clocked in for a few good hours.”

_Let’s do it._

“Like that attitude,” Kade said, grinning a little wider than he really intended.  He could feel it: Heatwave’s determination and drive to get the job done.  And it was feeding right into Kade’s conviction, strengthening it.  “You know, if this ends up working, we could kick some serious ass.”

_Then let’s make it work._

“Fuckin’ yes.” 

* * *

 Making it work was more difficult than Kade had originally imagined.  Confined to a set list of commands to execute, some of which weren’t even possible anymore since their window of invoking had closed for good, Kade was getting frustrated.  Which was annoying Heatwave.  And Heatwave’s annoyance was making Kade cranky. 

The headache was coming back.

“Okay, okay, just stop, stop, stop it, stop everything, timeout.”

 _Say it a few more times, maybe it’ll help,_ Heatwave grumbled from where he’d slumped over in Kade’s mind.  It was weird on its own: Kade could almost feel Heatwave do things like facepalm and sagging in frustration and weariness.  They could even nudge against each other through the link.

“It says ‘attempt deliberate formation of core traits’ and then starts talkin’ about ‘transference of mores’ and ‘organization of priority lists.’”

_You pronounced ‘mores’ wrong._

“Thanks, I’ll be sure to let you know when I find a fuck to give.  Seriously, though, what does any of this mean?”

_You were the one who went through two years of training.  Why do you not know?_

“Uh, this shit just runs right off me like water.  I was too busy acing my piloting exercises.”

_And this leads me to the precise reason I didn’t want you as my pilot._

Kade frowned.  Weren’t they past this crap?  Heatwave hadn’t brought it up at all since Kade synched with him.  He’d been cooperative and even enthusiastic when they were first getting started.  Now that things were getting difficult, he went and dredged up that old news.  It was like he was just ready to fight.  Yeah, well, Kade would fight back.  Heatwave was just gonna have to learn that.

“Well, looks like we all can’t get what we want, huh?” Kade said snidely. 

He probably wouldn’t ever get used to the weird feeling of being carrier to someone else’s anger.  It bubbled up from Kade’s stomach and rushed back and forth through him like an unexpected swelter.  His stomach turned sour and his face flushed.

 _Think we’re done for now._  Heatwave was already beginning to disengage the tap.  _You read the manuals again and come back when you figure out how to do your job._

“We can’t cut the synch!” Kade said, his hands going around to the back of his head to keep the tap from pulling out of his port.  It hurt to hold it in, like a hard pinch at the back of his neck.  “I’m going to go right back to having a migraine; we haven’t figured how to fix it yet!”

_Guess it looks like we all can’t get what we want then, huh?_

Kade’s hands loosened as the words seared through him like a venom.  The tap slipped out and retreated to its housing above the cockpit.  Kade stared blankly through his visor at the camera above the HUD.

“You fucking asshole,” he spat as he punched the keys to unseal the cockpit.

_‘Back at you.  Now get out.’_

Kade kicked his way out of the cockpit and slammed his fist hard against the lift button to make it descend.  Cody was there at the command console talking with his little friend Frankie, Doc Greene’s girl, and when Kade caught sight of them he sighed, some of the tension bleeding out.  Cody was beaming at him.

“Hi Kade!  How’s Heatwave?” Cody asked.

“’s fine.  Never better,” Kade grumbled as he reached out to bump his little bro’s proffered fist.  “You guys done with school?”

“Yeah!  And Dani picked us up so we could hang out with you guys.  We’re going to Morellia’s for dinner.”

Kade couldn’t help a smile at that, anger pressing out of him with a sigh.  After all, there was no wound that Mexican food couldn’t soothe.

“Heatwave looks sad,” Frankie interrupted.  Kade glanced over at her and then followed her line of sight to where it was trained on the bot’s face. 

“He’s just tired,” Kade reasoned with her as he took in the dimmer optics and slight slouch of Heatwave’s helm.  “We both are.  Synchronization isn’t all that fun.”

Frankie was looking between him and Heatwave with the kind of disbelieving intuition that a seven-year-old really shouldn’t have.  Kade winced inwardly as he dodged any more questions by turning and walking towards the bunkers.  Figures that even first graders would end up being smarter than he was when it came to things like this.  Smart kids…Kade was out of his league.

And if he wasn’t careful, they’d probably take his job someday.  At this rate, it was looking like anyone else could.

The pressure and pain started blooming around his temples and Kade groaned as he slammed the button to the entrance hatch for the bunkers.  He had a prescription painkiller bottle buried somewhere in the bag they brought from the hospital.  Strong enough to knock him out for a decent nap, if anything.  Sooner the better: that headache obviously wasn’t going to improve anytime soon. 

* * *

 “Heatwave, there’s someone who would like to speak to you.”

Heatwave engaged the external camera feeds and focused them on the command console where Chief Burns was sitting.  He panned left and right but there was no one else with him.  The hangar was completely empty save for Charlie, Heatwave, and the three remaining Sparks who, come tomorrow, would find their very own new dimension to live in.

Heatwave curled around and tested his own reaction of ‘confusion’.  He was still learning them.  After several consecutive days of synching with Kade, it was becoming easier to process various emotional responses.  They were so different, registering at different places within his chassis at times, which was interesting all on its own.  Sometime they had temperatures or colors or strange textures that came with words and Heatwave was gradually categorizing all of them, teaching himself what each emotion was flavored.  Confusion felt like a tightness in his neck cables. 

_‘There’s no one with you, Chief.  Who are you talking about?’_

Charlie Burns smiled that smile, the one Heatwave had seen him give to each of his children when he was pleased with them.  Kade wasn’t on the receiving end of that smile as of late.  His approach to the synchronization was aggressive and full of frustration and downright egoism.  There wasn’t any really measurable damage but Heatwave always felt like after they broke synchronization, his internal machinery had been run through a metal-shredder.  Kade insisted he was ‘trying.’  Charlie Burns insisted—much more gently—that Kade was ‘trying’ to do all the wrong things for all the wrong reasons.

At least he understood.  It was a crying shame that Kade didn’t.  Heatwave worked with what he had, even if what he had was a stubborn asshole for a pilot.

“They won’t be speaking to you like normal.  There’s an incoming transmission that I’m going to route directly to you.”

Heatwave listed to the side a little.  It made the helm of his robotic body tilt just so.

_‘That’s alright with me.  This someone I’ve never talked to before?’_

Charlie nodded and entered a few commands into the console.

“He’s the benefactor and sponsor of the Sikari program.”

Surprise was a sudden firework: it shot straight up and was hot when it burst.  Then it rained in alternating tingles of anticipation.

 _‘I’ll be sure to show him my best qualities, sir,’_ Heatwave assured him.  And Charlie did that smile again. 

“That’s alright, Heatwave,” he said, giving the console a pat.  “Just be yourself.  Once I make the connection, I’m going to retire to the bunkers for the night.  Just a guess but you’ll probably be on the call for the whole evening.  But if you break the conversation for whatever chance can I trust you to enter stasis on your own?”

_‘Of course. I’ll do as you ask.’_

“Good work, Heatwave.”  Charlie looked up at Heatwave with a strange look on his face.  Heatwave focused his cameras but even with several long seconds of sustaining the image, he couldn’t understand what was being said with no words.  In the end, Charlie Burns sighed with that smile and hit another button on the console to connect the call.  And then he left, right as Heatwave accepted the incoming request.

All external awareness shrunk away and Heatwave found himself pacing along the A/V feed with poorly-contained curiosity.  It was asking him if it could engage Stage-S integration.  Heatwave narrowed his focus on the request with suspicion.  Stage-S was only accessible through the neural link synchronization that he shared with Kade.  There was no other way to engage it except through tap-to-port interfacing.  It shouldn’t even be possible for something like a communication transmission to interfere with his Spark, right?  Unless he gave it the permissions to do so, Heatwave reasoned.  But…at the same time, Charlie Burns had wanted him to do this.  This communication was supposed to be from the person who wanted Heatwave to come to life in the first place.  Surely it was safe for him to accept this. 

Fear was hard and cold and sour and Heatwave hated it.

He accepted the request.

It wasn’t like entering into synchronization. Honestly, opening the communication wasn’t even different from communicating with anyone else.  The only difference was that there wasn’t a video feed, although one was apparently attempting to generate. Heatwave waited patiently, unsure of how to begin any conversation.

“Am I coming in clearly?” an unfamiliar voice asked.  Heatwave metaphysically straightened himself and spoke in return.

“Loud and clear.  Your connection is stable and currently integrated with my mainframe.  I am Heatwave.  It’s an honor to meet the one who funded my existence.”

There was silence.  Heatwave waited.  He waited and watched the video feed’s buffer wheel turn over and over.  And then there was a long sigh coming over the wavelengths.  A strange warmth flooded into Heatwave’s Spark and he recoiled from it, startled, before moving back to investigate.  Deep and resonant, a laugh followed behind the sigh.

“I cannot tell you how ecstatic I am to hear your voice, Heatwave,” the one at the other end of the commlink said.  “I always had hope for the future.  But when facing down the most grim of circumstances, sometimes it is easy to let doubt sink in.  Your voice – your existence – has restored my hope.”

The video feed flashed to life.  Heatwave had no idea why but for some reason he felt like his jaw should be dropping.  It wasn’t possible.  His jaw didn’t have hinges; he didn’t have a mouth to open.  But it would’ve been the appropriate response to what he saw.

Generated on the vidscreen was a robot.  Just like him.  It moved and blinked and was smiling and…were those tears?

“I’m—” Heatwave started and then stopped because he actually had no clue what he was.

“There you are,” the figure on the screen said and another wash of joy rolled over Heatwave.  Behind it trailed a blanket of pure comfort, settling about Heatwave like a mantle.  It wrapped him up and Heatwave felt a strange ghosting in his optics but blinked it away.  “You are so beautiful.”

Heatwave was mute with confusion. He stared at the screen in front of him like its existence was another yank into the next dimension.  He already had one of those a few days ago, thanks, and at least he marginally knew what to expect with that one.  This is just….

“Forgive me, I am getting ahead of myself.”  The…mech? on the screen shook his helm, wiping away the tears on his face before lifting his chin again and giving Heatwave a completely different expression.  Stalwart strength and determination.  “My name is Optimus Prime.  I am not of Earth, but another planet entirely, known as Cybertron.  Together, in conjunction with Doctor Ezra Greene, Professor Anna Baranova and Chief Charles Burns, I have commissioned your construction and given you the means for sentience.” 

Heatwave’s processor was running a thousand comprehensive tasks, searching for information he hadn’t been given until this point. But, no, there were no Earth records of ‘Optimus Prime’ or ‘Cybertron.’  They didn’t exist anywhere within any human database that was freely accessed.  Which meant either the information given was a complete fabrication or classified to the highest level.  Heatwave was willing to bet the second answer was the more likely one.  It was way too real to be some sort of bizarre prank.  Chief wouldn’t do that.  None of them would.

Maybe Kade, but he wasn’t smart or resourceful enough to pull a stunt like that.

“I don’t understand,” Heatwave merely said, giving up on trying to respond coherently.

Optimus Prime nodded.  Another layer of comfort wrapped around Heatwave; he tugged it off to run his senses over it more acutely.  It was warm.  Soft…? 

“Allow me to explain further.  It is a complicated tale which I’m sure you will have questions about, so I will begin with the basics and you may ask for clarification as you need it.  Like I said, I am of the planet Cybertron, populated with other Cybertronians, mechanized life forms not dissimilar from yourself.”  Optimus Prime’s bright blue optics dimmed but he remained intently focused on Heatwave.  “The short story is that there was a civil war that ripped our planet apart and eventually plunged our race to the stars to continue battling each other for millennia to come.  The war…it is over now, thankfully.  But we have sustained such unfathomable losses.

“One of the most significant losses being that of the Allspark.  Without it, there are never to be new Cybertronians.  We remain a dying race, now devastated to an infinitesimal sliver of our population.  There have been no newsparks for thousands of years.  And for the longest time, we believed that this was the finite point for Cybertronians as a people.  But, after establishing contacts with a few benevolent and courageous individuals on Earth, we uncovered a solution.”

“And that solution is me,” Heatwave filled in for him.  “All of us in the Sikari Project.”

“Correct,” Optimus Prime said.  A rush of pride engulfed Heatwave and he clung to it, honored.  “Through a combination of Cybertronian CNA coding and human engineering, you and the three other Sparks have been created: the first newsparks of peacetime and the hope of the future for all Cybertronians.”

“But…the Sikari Program is a military initiative to combat the interdimensional monsters known as Kaijuu. That has nothing to do with the propagation of an entire alien race.”  Heatwave darted around with his confusion and pushed it over the communication link, realizing that it was a two-way process.  These strange flares of emotion were coming from Optimus Prime himself.  Which explained the Stage-S integration request.  They were communicating with more than just words and pictures.  Though Heatwave wondered if Optimus Prime actually had any video feed of Heatwave. 

He called him beautiful…. 

There were only off-network security cameras in the hangar, nothing that could be accessed through any remote connection.  The only cameras Optimus Prime could possibly have connection to were Heatwave’s cockpit feeds.  Didn’t quite line up with the compliment, Heatwave felt. 

Either way.  Heatwave continued his line of thinking.

“It doesn’t make sense,” he said.  “If we’re the first offspring your race has seen in thousands of years, shouldn’t you be more concerned about preserving us than letting us endanger ourselves by fighting dangerous creatures?”

“You, like all Cybertronians, are made to be strong,” Optimus Prime said, confident, though a thread of sadness slipped through.  Heatwave pulled it along.  “Our bargain with the humans was to give them the means of defending themselves in exchange for your lives.  You will not fail.  You are strong, virtually immortal.”

“You sound so sure,” Heatwave commented.

“I’m absolutely sure,” Optimus Prime assured him.  “Your body is one of human construction so it is not as strong as a native Cybertronian’s.  But it is the strongest and perfectly made to keep you safe.  Your Spark will be preserved no matter what.  You are well cared for.”

Heatwave scoffed a little and then watched as Optimus Prime blinked at him, curious as to the response.  Well, now was as good a time as ever.

“My pilot’s behavior towards me would prove that statement wrong,” he said.  Optimus Prime furrowed the brow plates above his optics.

“Kade Burns, if I’m not mistaken,” the Cybertronian said, frowning.  “Heatwave, please tell me what is distressing you.”

Heatwave hovered around the video feed speculatively.  He did have many more questions he wanted to ask Optimus Prime.  The initial shock of the Cybertronian’s truth had passed.  It was easy to accept the information.  Later, he would check with the admins of the project to make sure it was all as Optimus Prime had said.

What was difficult to grasp was how willing this complete stranger was to take on Heatwave’s problems.  Maybe in the objective it made sense: Heatwave – and the other Sparks – represented a whole host of hopes for an entire alien race.  To Optimus Prime, he was an asset to be protected.  And to that end, it made sense.

What didn’t make sense was the emotions running through their Spark integration: concern, protectiveness, underlying affection.  These were largely unfamiliar and reflected a lot more than just a benefactor acting in the best interest of his investments. 

The look on his face was the same look that Charlie Burns gave Kade when his son wasn’t looking.

It would take a while, perhaps, but Optimus Prime didn’t look to be in any rush.  Chief Burns said they had all night. 

“The facility has a lot of people for me to interact with,” Heatwave started by saying.  “I’ve been able to speak with every member of the Burns family and a dozen more bioengineers over the course of years.  My pilot, Kade, is the only one of them that I’ve ever had a real problem with.  And I still am.”

“I was informed by Doctor Greene and Professor Baranova that your early invoking was due to a reckless decision that Kade Burns made,” Optimus Prime said, nodding his helm. 

“Annoying as that was, it was just as easy for me to put it behind me and get on with work,” Heatwave said.  “The new experience that I have because of the personality imprint has helped me stay focused.  I feel right, this way.  My problem is…stuff like this.” 

Heatwave kept a tether of himself reaching across to the connection – linked with Optimus Prime’s Spark – and with another point of focus he reached for the horribly fragmented portions of himself that had been crowding him ever since the clash of invoking with Kade.  The sensation was maddening.  Like a haphazard cluster of memory, voices, emotional impressions that he didn’t know how to interpret.  All of it ended up putting stressors on his processors, making error messages pop up in places that were seemingly irrelevant.  Just prodding at the bits of corrupted data made Heatwave feel like he was going to keel over into a system crash. 

Optimus Prime gave a concerned hum, not quite a grunt, but it was clear on the video feed that he could feel the echo of Heatwave’s sensations. 

“That is rather distressing,” the Cybertronian said, his brow plates furrowing.

“Synchronizing with Kade Burns helps repair it,” Heatwave said, “but only temporarily.  As soon as we disconnect, it goes right back to that mess.  Sometimes it gets even worse after he leaves.”  Heatwave pulled himself from all of the disrupted code still lingering around in his processor and just remained still before the video feed.  “Kade comes at the problem with sledgehammers and gets frustrated when all he gets is more cracks to repair.  He doesn’t work with me, he works _at_ me, like the problem is all my own and is only affecting him incidentally.”

Optimus Prime had been doing this thing for a while now, a steady, constant pulse of comfort and reassurance that was keeping Heatwave from completely boiling over while he spelled out all of the crap that he’d had to put up with for the past week.  He’d only had feelings for a few days but they were already being trampled from the getgo.  If Heatwave hadn’t known any better, he would’ve figured this was just how it was supposed to be. 

But he did know better. 

“From what I can glean, this is mainly a problem centered around a lack of understanding on Kade’s part,” Optimus Prime said.  “I’m sure you’ve attempted multiple times to help him see things from your perspective.”

“It only works if he thinks it’s a good idea,” Heatwave grumbled.  “And right now, the only thing he’s interested in doing is troubleshooting a machine, not acknowledging that partnership requires an actual effort to work together.”  Heatwave sighed in exasperation, something that was a bit different to do since he didn’t have the proper physical components to make it happen.  His metal chassis sagged a little and internally, his Spark shrank on itself.  “His conviction to do his work is the only thing likable about him but even that is getting overshadowed with how he basically browbeats my coding for solutions that it doesn’t have.

“There’s nothing wrong with me but him.”

Heatwave didn’t like this new feeling.  It was dense and sticky at his center and he felt like his helm had a dent in it.  Another wave of warmth rolled over him and Heatwave glared at it.

“Why do you keep doing that?” he asked, distressed to the point of forgetting his manners.  It was easy though; it wasn’t as if Optimus Prime was keeping this formal by continually fawning over him.  Maybe it was okay to be a little spoiled by it.

“Because you are upset and you feel alone in it,” Optimus Prime said gently.  “You were always meant to be invoked with your brothers, so that you could be together and share your experiences together.  Your human companion was to be more than a pilot but a guide as you learned to exist as a completed Spark.  You were never meant to be alone.”

Heatwave let his poorly constructed barriers down and let Optimus Prime course pure empathy and gentleness into his Spark.  Even at the corrupted boundaries of his own coding, Heatwave sank into that comfort.  It was a more than welcome reprieve.

“The others are being invoked tomorrow,” Heatwave mumbled.  “I won’t be alone.  Shouldn’t be griping about this in the first place, I just have to work harder.”

“There’s something to be said about determination and perseverance, Heatwave,” came the low and soothing words of Optimus Prime, “but you can only do so much on your own before you find yourself burnt out and unable to continue.  Please allow me to commune with the project leaders tomorrow and use their influence to help guide Kade Burns a little more accurately towards your needs.  Our options are not yet exhausted.” 

Heatwave hadn’t even come close to reaching a point of surrender but there was something nice in knowing that he didn’t have to try and figure out everything on his own.  He could do it.  He could do anything he put his mind to.  Dealing with Kade was a hassle and a half but it would be such a weight off to not keep smashing his helm against that particular wall.  He could be putting his time and energy towards something more important, like preparing for the rest of the Sparks’ invoking.  Unanticipated early invoking and all its consequences aside, Heatwave actually had the advantage here.  He could help the others learn with the bit of knowledge he possessed.

“Anything that you could do to help would be great,” Heatwave told Optimus Prime as he watched him tap around on what looked like a tablet but was definitely not of any Earthly make.  “They’ve projected our first field tests for next month and I don’t want to waste any more time solving problems that I shouldn’t have had to begin with.”

“Understandable, Heatwave.  I’ll see what I can do for you.”

Optimus Prime set down his tablet and then looked straight into whatever camera he was using.  Heatwave focused on the image. 

“One day…when Earth is safe from the most dangerous threat it has ever faced, and when we have restored our own planet to livable conditions again, we will build bodies for you that you can move with your own natural instincts.  Bodies that can feel just like any other Cybertronian.  We will place your Sparks within them and take you home to us and you will be among those who have counted you as family from the very beginning.”

Heatwave didn’t know if the prospect made him particularly happy.  But there was something in the way that Optimus Prime said the words.  This was more than just a hope, he was promising it to Heatwave with a sincerity so deep that Heatwave was having trouble wrapping himself around it.

“Until then, we’ll do right by everyone,” Heatwave said, feeling a surge of loyalty.  “We won’t let you down, Optimus Prime.  I’ll take care of the Sparks for as long as we’re here.”

“And they will take care of you,” the mech said with a nod.  “Is there anything else I might do for you while I have you on call, Heatwave?”

Heatwave pushed his gratitude wordlessly over their connection and settled within himself, buoyed by feelings of confidence and hope.

“Will you tell me about Cybertron? I want to know about our people.”

Even staying up all night doesn’t come close to the time needed for Optimus Prime to finish his tale.  But, as the first bioengineers made their way into the hangar, he promised Heatwave that there would be many more times for them to speak.

* * *

 Kade debated quitting the room entirely.  Leaving the hangar, the whole facility and driving straight to the beach to get like five hot dogs and eat them in the span of half an hour because first of all, he was way too hungry for this shit and secondly, being anywhere else sounded like a great idea.  And then he reminded himself that skipping out on any Sikari business for any reason was pretty much unacceptable if he wanted to keep the dream job.

Even if it was turning out to be a pain in the ass.

Even if it was turning out that his giant robot pain-in-the-ass was actually one of the precious newborns to a race of sentient cybernetic warriors from another fucking planet.

Five hot dogs sounded really great right about now.

“How is that even possible?” Graham was whispering to the ceiling.  Dani was still gaping at their dad.

“You spoke with Optimus Prime yourself,” their dad answered.  “We would’ve told you sooner but with Kade’s incident with Heatwave, there were a few things we wanted to straighten out first.  Speaking of which,” Charlie turned to his firstborn and put a tablet in his hands, “While the rest of the bots are being invoked, you are to run the gamut of this list with Heatwave.  You need to complete it as thoroughly and to the best of your ability.”

“What is it?” Kade asked as he flicked the screen and pulled up the checklist on it.

“A revised protocol to help you correct the issues you’re having with Heatwave.  From what I’m hearing, the headaches aren’t getting any better and everything you’ve tried hasn’t made any progress.”

Kade grumbled something and read through the list, his mouth twisting into a grimace the further down he went.  The list had pretty much nothing to do with fixing software errors and was just a series of cryptic suggestions like, ‘try to blend your senses with Heatwave’s for five minutes straight.  Then ten.  Then fifteen.’

“This whole thing looks like a schedule for some cyber-hippy bullshit,” Kade commented blandly.

“Language,” Charlie reminded his son.  “Go on, get to it.  The rest of us have to get ready.”

“And I have more questions!” Dani said, still blessed with the opportunity to be baffled by the news they were given, unlike Kade, who now had to gear up to face another day of neural interface with Big Red the Grumpy.

He sighed and pushed his way out of the communications lab, pushing the door smack into Cody’s face.  Kade dropped to a crouch and put the tablet away, brushing his little brother’s bangs away from his forehead to scope the damage.

“You alright there, squirt?” he asked.  “That didn’t sound too nice.”

Cody rubbed his brow a little but then blinked up at Kade with a grin.

“The bots are aliens,” he said, all aglow.  Kade winced and then turned back towards the lab.

“You better go talk to dad, I am not fielding this security breach,” he said, scooting his brother inside and leaving the rest of his family to decide what to do with him.  After all, Kade had super important business to take care of.  He sighed again and massaged the spot between his eyebrows.

The hangar was bustling today: fully staffed in preparation for the invoking.  Bioengineers were dashing back and forth from their clusters around the command consoles at Docks Two, Three, and Four.  Dock One was noticeably empty, save for Professor Baranova, who sat at Heatwave’s console tapping something into its keyboard.  Kade wandered up and knocked on the console in greeting and when the Professor glanced up he gave her his patented lady-charming smile.

“Let me take over from here, ma’am,” he said, pulling out the tablet and giving it a wave.  “Got a whole new gameplan.”

“Hmm,” the Professor chuckled, “You’re welcome for that too, Kade.”

“God knows what I’d do without all you brainy types,” Kade said, giving her a jaunty little salute with the tablet before he meandered to the lift.

“And who knows what we would do without you,” she said.  Kade didn’t see her shaking her head and just let the soft sarcasm pick at the places where he thought had been healing over.  Kade clenched his fingers a little tighter around the tablet.  He couldn’t give up.  He couldn’t turn out to be the one member of the Burns family that no one could count on. 

Kade looked up at Heatwave as the lift raised him up to the cockpit.  Heatwave was looking steadily from one dock to another, at the Sparks who would be invoked in a matter of hours.

Kade stepped into the cockpit and sealed it.  Silence.  Soundproofing was so nice; there was nothing but the hum of machinery and the sound of his own breathing as he settled into the pilot’s seat.  Kade glanced up to the camera above the windshield HUD and gave it a tired smirk.

“Back again with a vengeance,” he said with only a peripheral touch of enthusiasm.  There was a chirruping beep and then Sikari code scrolled across the screen in red.

_‘Did you hear about Optimus?’_

Kade gave a mirthless chuckle as he pulled on his visor and engaged it.

“Yeah, just got the lowdown from dad.  No time for that, though, apparently.  We got a new itinerary to try out.  More important than proof that aliens exist and are actually robots who just needed a little help making the magic happen.”

Kade looked upwards towards the tap.  When it didn’t descend, he focused back on the camera.

“You wanna go ahead and get this over with?” he said pointedly.  It would really be nice to get that corkscrewing pain out from behind his eyeballs.  “Feeling modest today?”

_‘No.  I’m wondering what the other Sparks are going to be like.  I’m hoping that they won’t be hurt in their invoking.’_

Kade’s shoulders sank in a gradual sag as he leaned back against the seat.  One foot came up to perch on the edge of the seat and he found himself sighing all over again.

Well, alright, maybe that stupid list had left something off.  Kade wouldn’t bother adding it to his daily progress report or anything, but he could at least take care of the matter now.

“Heatwave,” he said, so low that his voice broke a little.  The camera made a very soft whirring noise as it focused on Kade.  “I’m sorry.”

This silence was sucky.  There wasn’t even a cursor blinking on the screen.  Kade continued because he didn’t feel like stewing and waiting.

“It was a shitty thing to just do the invoking like that and it ended up causing problems for everyone and you and me especially. Also it was a shitty thing to do because you said you didn’t want it and I did it anyway without any warning and now things are still shit and we hate each other and this seriously isn’t what I pictured when I dreamed of being a Sikari pilot.  Fact is, I don’t have anyone to blame but myself for it so…yeah.  I’m sorry. You’re right.  You deserve better than me.”

_‘Wow.’_

More silence.  This time Kade just let it happen.  He could go on to say that he would do his damndest but what was the value in words like those to someone who from day one didn’t have any reason to put their faith in you?

_‘I seriously didn’t think I would ever hear an apology from you.’_

Kade put both feet on the dash console and folded his arms over his knees.

“I hadn’t planned on giving one,” he said honestly.

_‘Any reason you changed your mind?’_

“Look, dude,” Kade said, ruffling his hair with one hand, “we’re stuck with each other now, right?  That’s how it is and, in the end, I wanna do a good job.  Figure if I’m gonna do right by me, then I gotta do right by you too, even if it is fucking weird that you’re some alien-robot baby.  Here on Earth, you’re my weapon and every weapon should be treated with respect.  Probably more if it can do calculus.”

There was another brief moment of silence.

_‘You’re getting there, Burns.  You got a ways to go but at least you’re going in the right direction.  I’ll take it for what it’s worth.’_

Kade let the corner of his mouth lift in a smirk.

“That mean you accept my apology?”

_‘More or less.  Your next step is to get it through your thick head that I’m more than just a weapon.”_

Kade gave a shrug and rested his chin on his folded arms.

“It’s gettin’ more real to me every day.  Helps when you have the tap plugged in.  I can feel you starting to make sense.”

With a soft click the tap descended and Kade glanced up at it before taking it in hand and guiding it into his neural port.  The synchronization took.

Kade wasn’t sure if he’d ever adapt to the way it felt to suddenly be more than himself.  All of Heatwave’s knowledge was easily accessible, all he had to do was search through it.  All of his memories were one nanosecond away.  Kade could navigate a mechanical body that was so utterly unfamiliar and yet, through Heatwave’s understanding, he could grasp what every single part did and how he could influence it.  Kade could turn himself into nothing but compiled coding and then filter right back into his own body to feel Heatwave hovering around his heartbeat curiously.

The headache was gone.  Only a quiet sense of hope remained, soothing as the dawn breezes on the shoreline.

_I can feel your conviction._

Kade closed his eyes and let his awareness focus inwards to where Heatwave had dipped into the space in his chest.  It was warm there.  Heatwave tested at it, seeing if it would give if he pushed or tugged at it.  Kade found himself grinning even though he wasn’t the one smiling.

_So what do you have on that itinerary?_

“Whole bunch of boring shit that we’re going to do as best we can because I’m not checking out until we get to the bottom of this list.”

_No half-assing._

“No half-assing,” Kade agreed.  He opened his eyes and lifted the tablet to send a text copy of it onto his visor.  “First thing’s first: they want us to do memory dives.  Never tested long-term dives but the thing says…well, read it for yourself.”

Heatwave did.  He flicked through the entire list and made a copy for himself.  He didn’t need it now but he would look over it again later and write up a report for the bioengineers.

“Glad you actually like doing that shit.  I can’t stand it.”

_Suck it up._

“Yeah, yeah, I’m gonna.  Part of the responsibility: doing the stuff that you hate but you gotta do anyway.”

_You’re getting it._

“Damn right I’m gettin’ it.”

_You dive first.  I got something I wanna show you._

Kade cracked his knuckles together and leaned back in the pilot’s seat, his hands wrapping comfortably around the joysticks as if he were about to guide them out anytime soon.  Heatwave would still be docked for at least another week.  The motion was just something done reflexively.  It meant that now was the time for action.  Heatwave picked along the habit and helped Kade steel his grip.

“Going in,” Kade said, closing his eyes and plunging backwards into Heatwave’s memories. 

* * *

 Dani had Blade’s cockpit unsealed and open, slouched sideways in the seat with the neural tap still fixed into her port and her visor perched up on her head like a pair of high-tech sunglasses.  She was eyeing Dock One, where her older brother was still sitting still as stone in Heatwave’s cockpit.  Dani and the rest of her family had completed their bots invoking a couple hours ago, all successful, though incredibly jarring.  They had even had lunch brought up to them and the bots got to experience eating as one of their very first human sensations.  Kade, however, had not unsealed his cockpit for the past three hours.

“You worried about him too?” Graham commed her in the middle of her reverie.  Blades was already pouncing on the communication link like an excitable puppy.

_Is that Graham? And Boulder?! Say hi for me, please!_

Dani grinned wide.  She was so glad that aside from a little hiccup of fear there at the beginning, Blades’ invoking had gone off without a hitch.  He was just so exuberant, so enthusiastic about his new personality and perspective.  She was delighted with him.

“Yeah,” she said back to Graham.  “Also Blades wanted me to say hi to you and Boulder.”

Graham chuckled and then there was a pause.

“Boulder says hello back.  But about Kade…he hasn’t responded to any of my comms.  Have you tried to get his attention at all?”

“Well, yeah, I wanted to tell him how the invoking went and then when lunch came in I flicked a few pings at him but…nada.”

“Should we get dad to try?”

“Dunno why he would have any better luck.  Let’s get some hard data to work with.”  Dani flipped her visor back down and pulled up a three-way communication channel with Doc Greene.  “Hey Doc.”

“Dani!  How goes it with Blades?”  Doc sounded like Christmas was going to come early every year.  Dani couldn’t help but empathize.

“Goes well.  No problems here.  Graham and I were a little concerned about Kade, though.  He hasn’t come out for hours.  How are his vitals?  Anything funky going on?”

“Hmm…let me take a look.  I did find it strange that he didn’t show much interest in that rather bulging bag of drive-thru fare.  He’s a fan of that, isn’t he?”

“You did save it, right?” Graham asked.  “He’s gonna be upset if someone threw it away.”

“Don’t you worry,” Doc said, smile clear in his tone and the sound blips of a console computing in the background.  “It’s safe in the breakroom with his name written on the bag and everything.  Now, as for your question, Dani, Kade’s signs are reading steady as they have been for the past few hours.  Nothing indicates that he’s having any trouble with his synchronization.  Although some of these brainwave patterns are indicating a rather high level of what almost looks like REM sleep.  It isn’t…but our comparisons easily match them with the same waves that you – the rest of the Burnses –  exhibited during the initial period following your invoking.”

Dani pursed her lips a little as she turned the information over.  Blades was darting back and forth along it, supplying his own recollection of what it was like to be newly formed and synchronizing with her not even a few hours ago. 

“So…safe to say he’s trying to do some repair work with Heatwave?” Graham asked.

“That would be my best hypothesis,” Doc Greene agreed.  “We did prescribe him a personalized plan to try and absolve their synchronization issues.  It seems to me that they are making good progress.  I suggest we leave them to it; Kade will come out when he is ready.”

“His fries are gonna be cold by then,” Graham mumbled after Doc clicked out of the comm.

“It’ll be fine,” Dani told him, “he’ll still be happy with them.”

 _Dani what do cold fries taste like?_ Blades interjected with a cautious curiosity.

“Not as good as hot ones,” she said with a little grin. 

_I wanna try…._

“I’ll ask Kade if we can have a couple of his when he comes back from Lala Land.”

It was weird and ticklish to feel Blades laughing in her and around her.

_You’re so sillyyyyy…. Lala Land…that’s not a place, silly Dani!_

Dani slid down a little further in her seat and tugged Blades back into her body so he could feel it when she wrapped her arms around herself and squeezed him in a hug.

“I’m so glad you’re here with us, Blades,” she said.  Blades gasped with happiness and darted around inside her chest like a little firework.

_Me too! Me too, I’m so happy to be here!  I’m so happy!_

“You wanna watch a movie with me while we wait for big brother to join the rest of us?”

_Yes, please.  Can we watch a cartoon movie?_

“How about _Wall-E_?”

 _Yes, please!_  

* * *

 Heatwave was willing to bet – or maybe Kade was – that the longer they stayed this deep, the more they would blur together.  The definitions would smear across each other and little by little there would be singular from plural.  They were recoiling against the thought of losing individuality but was brushed off as an inconsequential prospect.  If they broke the synchronization, they’d fit back into two just fine. 

Working so efficiently as one mind was new.  And it was amazing.  Heatwave had pulled Kade right into his own perspective of the events during the invoking, relived the entire scene together and afterwards he went with Kade to experience what it was like waking up in a hospital with his family around him, worrying their heads off and trying to look brave.

Kade went back even further, with just audio logs, pixelated video feeds and command prompts, as Heatwave passed his Turing Test.  He learned what it meant to think with machinery.  Heatwave flipped through an album of memories almost two decades long and picked out the ones Kade had of swimming, doing his pilot exercises, childhood nightmares that still lingered, riding rollercoasters, holding hands with a girl for the first time, seeing his mother dead on a hospital gurney, making silly noises at a six-month-old Cody until he squealed in laughter.

There was so much.  And when they had finished memory dives, they pulled up every single one of Kade’s old pilot simulation exercises and ran the gambits together.  They would bicker over maneuvers but it would only last as long as it took to execute their competing opinions and then end up agreeing on whose decision would’ve been better.  Admittedly, Kade sometimes did have a better concept of how to handle the situation; it was easier for him to factor in long-time consequences to the nearby human populations.  Most of the time, though, they were on the same frequency.

Kade dug up the specs for his flightsuit for Heatwave to review and they made preliminary plans to do all their non-vital testing with the suit integration capabilities as soon as they could.  There was so much they could do together, things that Kade could never accomplish on his own.  Things that Heatwave wasn’t capable of without the focused guidance of Kade’s training.

“What do you think?” Kade asked him as they finally reached the end of the simulation roster.  Kade had a very light sheen of sweat on his forehead; his eyes were focused on the visor alone, flickering over the readouts with Heatwave’s speed and comprehension so they both could read over their results.  “I’m not that bad a pilot after all, huh?”

_You’ll do._

“Ha!”

_Proven you’re worthy of getting a shot, at least.  Could still do better if you had an attitude adjustment._

“You’re just jealous you’re not nearly as good lookin’ as me.”

“Oh, hell,” Kade said, focusing their attention on the tight, clawing feeling in Kade’s stomach.

_What, what’s the matter?_

“I am fucking starving.  What….  Holy shit we’ve been at this for six hours straight, dude!” 

Heatwave jarred a bit as the blending suddenly snapped back and they were set within their boundaries once more.  Kade flicked out the command to disengage the tap and it retracted from his neural port.  Outside, the hangar was still full of people, but it was considerably less busy than before.  Heatwave glanced across the room and found himself locking optics with Chase.  Chase whose optics had changed from glassy blue to warm amber.  Chase blinked; his helm tilted just so. 

Joy plunged through Heatwave’s Spark.

 _‘They’re invoked,’_ he wrote across his HUD.  _‘They’re here and we…I missed it.’_

Kade was babbling on the comms to his family, not even reading the text on the HUD, on his visor.  Heatwave just left him to it and scanned the room instead.  Boulder and Blades too, their optics were different.  They tracked movement and before long, they were both looking back at Heatwave. 

All of a sudden the synchronization was engaging again and Heatwave was plunged back into the blur with Kade.

_Why…?_

“Well, I got food on the way and I’ve been advised to plug back in because there are apparently some very important discussions that you need to be a part of,” Kade told him.

_Discussions about what?_

“Hear that?” Kade asked, though the question wasn’t directed at Heatwave.  His finger was at the microphone of his visor.  “Heatwave wants to know what all the noise is about.”

“Heatwave!”

Heatwave felt his own optics blink out and back on in surprise.  The voice was Dani Burns’ but….

“Heatwave!  Heatwave, it’s Blades!  I learned how to talk, I learned _so much!_ Everything is so amazing!”

“We weren’t sure if we’d ever be able to talk to you,” Boulder speaking through Graham said.  “But thank you for waiting for us until we could join you.  Being invoked is so different!”

“Kade Burns informed us that you managed to clean up all the issues that were troubling you before,” Chase said even though it was Chief Burns’ voice.  “We are pleased to report that our invoking has been completed with no complications.”

There was such a tumult of emotions racing and tangling inside of Heatwave that Kade started reacting weirdly: rubbing his eyes and clearing his throat, scratching at his neck a little.  The human’s impatience built up bit by bit behind Heatwave’s torrent and then he finally threw his hands up.

“Well, you ever gonna say anything back?” Kade asked.

 _You’re just fine with me speaking with your mouth?_ Heatwave asked back, skeptical.

“You waited long enough.  Everyone else is doing it.  I’m not gonna be the one jackass who tells you no.  It’s no big deal, go ahead.”

Heatwave nudged at Kade: the mental equivalent of a fistbump.  Kade just laughed and let himself fade into Heatwave’s background.

Heatwave latched on the second-nature ability for Kade to speak English and with it, he opened Kade’s wide-grinning lips and connected to the commlink.

“Good to finally hear from you guys.  It’s been pretty boring without you.”  


End file.
